Obama goes campaigning as MA explodes

With an ever-tightening special election race for the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy, President Obama, after signalling for a long time that he would stay out of the state, has decided to go stump for Democrat Martha Coakley on Sunday. The decision underlines how far Scott Brown has come after trailing Coakley by 30 points a few months ago, and it’s more than evident Democrats nationwide are in panic mode over the close nature of a race that should have been a slam dunk in one of the bluest states in America.

Scott Brown has a lot of late momentum, which is more than helpful in any election, and Coakley has been making a series of campaign gaffes in one of the most critical weeks for her campaign. After snorting at Brown’s handshakes outside of Fenway and the brouhaha over an aide’s shove of a Weekly Standard reporter, her campaign is now utilizing an image of the World Trade Center in an attack ad highlighting Brown’s Wall Street connections just days after Sen. Chuck Schumer calls pro-choice Brown a “far-right teabagger.”

Yet, despite all this, I can’t yet predict an upset by Scott Brown, not in Massachusetts, a Democratic stronghold for decades and a state with a 3-1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans. Coakley is a terrible candidate, but the magic “D” after her name may just be enough to get her across the finish line. I probably won’t finally believe a Brown win until I see it Tuesday night.

But even if Scott Brown loses, Democrats nationwide should take pause at the fact that a Republican could give the Democrat such a run for her money in a deep blue seat in a battle for Ted Kennedy’s seat. At that level it becomes more than a battle between two candidates and reflects a growing unhappiness with the direction of the country and the agenda of Congress. But more on that later.

I agree this is a big deal for the political landscape nationwide. My take is that it is frustration at all those in power (regardless of party). In Massachusetts hapens to be a place where Dems are in power. Here in NC the guy that could be in trouble is a Republican, Richard Burr. Making this soo much about politcal party may backfire on the right.

To a degree an anti-incumbent feel is present, but I’d be cautious about projecting that too far. I’d also note that the majority of incumbents are Democrats, so pointing out the deficiencies in their political message is fair game. Massachusetts is the most liberal and bluest state in America, and it takes more than just a generalized disgruntling with Democrats to pull off a Republican victory in a state where the GOP is outnumbered three to one.

There are more Dems up for reelection than Republicans, so the numbers may well reflect that.

I would like to see real change from the bottom up, this would mean at the primary level. If a seated Democrat loses the primary and that person goes on to win the general election, I would say that too sends a message to Washington, even though in a case like that the seat wouldn’t neccessarily change hands.